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Two Hard Lessons and Then Victory

 Two Hard lessons and then Victory! 

Joshua led the Jews to conquest. However, it took a couple of difficult lessons before they all understood the seriousness of what they were about to do. 

They had to lose the battle of Aí when they decided to send just 3,000 soldiers to do the clean-up. Later they had to protect pagans from other pagans because they trusted a story from the Gibeonites. 

Joshua was a great general and in the end, he understood that one of the most important aspects of life is obedience to God and the other is intimacy with the Word of God. He started leading the people with these words in Joshua 1:8

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

  • Keep it on your lips (memorize it) 
  • Meditate on it during waking hours 
  • Then do it. 
  • Then you will be successful 

At the end of the narrative, he reemphasizes a similarly powerful sentiment in these words, 

Joshua 24:14 "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

  • Fear the Lord (reverence him) 
  • Serve him faithfully 
  • Get rid of idols (things that take your attention from God) 
  • Make your choice! 
  • I and my family will serve the Lord! 

Good advice at both ends of this book! Is that where you are?

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